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Comment by Hisoka | Hacker News Reader

I think once you're in a certain income level, it doesn't matter how much more you make... until you hit that next income level. As long as you meeting your survival needs, and not stressing out (live paycheck by paycheck), and of course don't have a disease/illness, then it doesn't matter if you make $80K, or $200K, or even $400K/year... it's not until you hit the million dollar mark where things get interesting. That's when you have financial freedom, and options open up. So I agree with the threshold thing to an extent.

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Financial freedom isn't about how big your income is, but how long you could live without that income. If I'm making $1m a year, but I'm a dumbass and spend $995k, I'm just as tied to my paycheck as the guy who only earns $50k and spends $45k. A guy who earns $100k a year and still only spends $45k is much better off than either of those two. Having a larger income impacts your financial freedom only to the extent that you're able to sock more money away and live off of that (or the proceeds if you invest). Otherwise, you're just a wage slave with nicer toys.

Money doesn't buy happiness, but it does buy options.

I cannot agree more strongly.

Most of the folks I know from my generation tend to spend almost all of their disposable income as soon as they obtain it. I have tried to explain to them that by doing so, they are selling their own freedom. You are forever at the yoke of he who employs you if you are living from paycheck to paycheck.

For the first three years of my career, I scrimped on almost all expenditures in order to accumulate a savings allowing me to be out of work for a period of at least one full year. I call it the FYF (the Fuck You Fund). I wouldn't trade it for anything but a true emergency.

I can't imagine you think that the marginal utilityof income is ever increasing (which is the result of a literal reading of you comment: the 120k between 80k and 200k is worth less than the 120k that puts you over the million dollar mark), so you must just be describing the standard case of marginal utility of income strongly decreasing. The fact that this is decreasing quickly is very important for life decisions, of course, but should be stated more clearly.

> once you're in a certain income level, it doesn't matter how much more you make... until you hit that next income level.

Studies [0] have shown that, in essence, money and happiness correlate up to about $75k/year for a U.S. family of four. Above that level, money might open up options, but it doesn't seem to increase happiness as a whole. As others have noted, you can have a lot of financial freedom well below the million dollar mark, or be financially burdened above it.

It should come as no surprise that some people have come to that realization, and decided to simply meet the threshold, life a financially stable lifestyle at that level, and invest the rest of their energy in enjoying life.

[0] http://www.inc.com/news/articles/2010/09/study-says-$75,000-... describes one such study

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